How To Get More Results Out Of Your Malpractice Attorney

Medical Malpractice Lawsuits

Attorneys hold a fiduciary relationship with their clients and are expected to conduct themselves with diligence, care and competence. However, just like any other professional, attorneys make mistakes.

Some errors made by attorneys are malpractice. To prove that legal malpractice has occurred, the aggrieved party has to prove the breach of duty, duty, causation and damages. Let's look at each of these elements.

Duty

Doctors and other medical professionals swear to use their education and expertise to treat patients and not cause harm to others. The duty of care is the foundation for patients' right to compensation if they are injured by medical malpractice. Your attorney can determine if the actions of your doctor violated the duty of care and if those breaches caused injury or illness.

Your lawyer must establish that the medical professional owed you the fiduciary obligation to act with reasonable competence and care. To prove that the relationship existed, you may require evidence such as your doctor-patient records or eyewitness evidence, or expert testimony from doctors who have similar experiences, education and training.

Your lawyer will also need to show that the medical professional violated their duty to care by failing to adhere to the accepted standards of their area of expertise. This is commonly referred to by the term negligence. Your lawyer will assess what the defendant did to what a reasonable individual would do in the same situation.

Your lawyer will also need to prove that the breach of the defendant's duty directly contributed to your loss or injury. This is known as causation. Your lawyer will rely on evidence including your doctor's or patient records, witness testimony and expert testimony, to show that the defendant's inability to meet the standards of care was the primary cause of the injury or loss to you.

Breach

A doctor is required to perform a duty of care to his patients that reflects professional medical standards. If a doctor fails to meet those standards and that failure results in injury, negligence and medical malpractice might occur. Typically experts' testimony from medical professionals with similar qualifications, training and certifications will aid in determining what the best standard of medical care should be in a particular case. State and federal laws, as well as institute policies, define what doctors are expected to provide for specific types of patients.

To prevail in a malpractice lawsuit it is necessary to prove that the doctor breached his or duty of care and that the breach was a direct cause of injury. In legal terms, this is called the causation component and it is crucial to establish. For example when a broken arm requires an xray, the doctor has to properly fix the arm and place it in a cast for proper healing. If the physician failed to perform this task and the patient suffered permanent loss of use of that arm, then malpractice may have occurred.

Causation

Attorney malpractice claims rely on evidence that demonstrates that the attorney's mistakes resulted in financial losses for the client. For instance when a lawyer does not file an action within the timeframe of limitations, which results in the case being lost forever, the injured party could bring legal malpractice lawsuits.

However, it's important to realize that not all errors made by attorneys are malpractice. Mistakes in strategy and planning are not generally considered to be malpractice attorneys have a lot of latitude to make decisions based on their judgments as long as they're reasonable.

Additionally, the law grants attorneys considerable leeway to fail to perform discovery on a client's behalf, as in the event that it is not unreasonable or negligent. Legal malpractice can be committed by not obtaining crucial documents or information, such as medical reports or witness statements. Other examples of malpractice are a failure to add certain defendants or claims such as omitting to file a survival count in a wrongful-death case or the continual and prolonged inability to contact a client.

It is also important to note the necessity for the plaintiff to prove that if not the lawyer's negligence they would have prevailed. In the event that it is not, the plaintiff's claim for malpractice will be denied. This makes the process of bringing legal malpractice lawsuits difficult. It is crucial to find an experienced attorney.

Damages

In order to prevail in a legal malpractice lawsuit the plaintiff must show actual financial losses resulting from an attorney's actions. In the case of a lawsuit this has to be proven with evidence like expert testimony or correspondence between the attorney and the client. In addition the plaintiff has to prove that a reasonable lawyer could have prevented the harm that was caused by the negligence of the attorney. This is referred to as the proximate cause.

Malpractice occurs in many ways. Some of the more common kinds of malpractice are the failure to adhere to a deadline, which includes the statute of limitations, failure to conduct a conflict check or other due diligence on a case, improperly applying the law to a client's case or breaking a fiduciary duty (i.e. commingling trust account funds with an attorney's personal accounts) or a mishandling of a case, and failing to communicate with a client.

In most medical malpractice cases the plaintiff is seeking compensation damages. They are awarded to the victim in exchange for out-of-pocket expenses and losses, such as medical and hospital bills, the cost of equipment required to aid in recovering, and lost wages. Victims can also claim non-economic damages such as discomfort and pain as well as loss of enjoyment from their lives, as well as emotional stress.

Legal malpractice cases usually include claims for compensatory and punitive damages. The former compensates the victim for the loss resulting from the negligence of an attorney, while the latter is intended to deter future malpractice by the defendant.